The secret Jews’ success: lessons for Africans (I)

Publishing Date : 10 October, 2017

Author :

CHARLES KUNGWENGWE

Imagine: 2% of American population is Jewish, yet this minority constitutes 40% of that country’s billionaires; globally Jews make-up less than 1% of the population but they surprisingly make up 25% of the world’s billionaires. With a population well below half of Zimbabwe’s population, Israel’s G.D.P runs into $300 billion. And every aspiring American President, in this American-run world, must first obtain the approval of the Jewish community.

Waal! Jews indirectly rule the world! They really own the magic wand for success!? One plus one Jew is equal to three. Of course, this is not a mathematical error but a synergy. It is equally true to say, mathematically speaking, any number to the power zero will always be one. Impliedly, a wholesale number of useless people added in order to re-enforce a weakling may not produce desired results. Also consider the following syllogism and deductive reasoning: All Jews are rich. Sam Lev is a Jew. Sam Lev must therefore be stinking rich.
The above statistics and comments, plus many more, which are too many to mention, speak volumes about Jewish successes.

This topic has already been explored by this writer elsewhere in the article entitled ‘What Lessons Could Africans Draw from the Jews Regarding Success? ‘That is on line but it was just a skeletal presentation. First and foremost, unlike us Africans, Jews have a positive mindset and attitude .These traits or attributes are not innate but result from socialization. The bible is a good socializing agent. And, despite some protestations to the contrary, it (BIBLE) is a history of the Jews, that is their origins, conquests and national purity as God‘s chosen people.

Could there be anything more motivating to someone, morale boosting, than the mere knowledge that he comes from a good background? God is portrayed as a property of this 'special racial syndicate' and surprisingly ,killed other people ,the Arabs, who are also a product of His own creation ,in order to advance Israelis interests .He only temporarily abandoned them because they had strayed from His Commandments.

Of course, this favoritism is all nonsense but simply betrays the interests of the writers who were themselves mostly Jewish, save for a few like Luke, but influenced by the already circulating literature that was meant to entrench, inter alia, patriarchy and Judaism. There is no way a writer can distance his interests from his own writings and this helps to account for the Synoptic Problem in the New Testament.

Be that as it may, this glorious history has greatly inspired the Jews. Resultantly, they have always tried to maintain the high standards of excellence as portrayed in the Bible. As can be seen, Jews have great role models, in the bible, to emulate from. This then influences their mindsets and then attitude towards success. On the other hand, Africans have been portrayed as backward ‘cursed sons of Ham ‘who bear the stigma of Noah‘s Curse' (Genesis 9:20-27). And, according to Exodus 20:5, the sins of the fathers are visited onto the children unto the fourth generation! As such, Africans have been condemned into ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water ‘to toil for the sons of Sham and Japheth, goes the argument. This message (Hamitic hypothesis) is hardly encouraging at all, it dampens our morale, and it in turn influences the African‘s mindset and devil-may –care attitude towards success, life and himself! In Psychology they call this phenomenon the labeling theory. It is also associated with the self-fulfilling prophecy. We have also always been taught that behind every successful Black person is a White Skin.

It is because of this neo -colonial mind that most Africans, including the late Wacko Jacko, have an identity crisis and are not sure whether they are Black or White. Do you still remember the touchy xenophobic attacks on foreigners by Pretoria? Ironically those of foreign origins in South Africa‘s definition are the fellow black brothers while those of White extraction went unscathed. Ironically speaking again, the South African nationals bore the brunt of Apartheid atrocities at the hands of the Boers, the very people whom they prefer to their Black brothers .It is hardly surprising, therefore, that Boer statues have been erected on virtually every inch of the country, yet not even a single one of a Negro hero is in sight. If this is not an identity crisis what is it? Pretoria has deliberately forgotten the role played by Frontline States, SADC and AU towards the attainment of her independence.

On the contrary, Jews are known for their racial pride and identity and have, as a result, been portrayed as the worst in terms of racism, overtaking the Germans and Boers in this regard. Which is why they rarely institute intermarriages and, as much as possible, still shun a social intercourse with other races. Indeed it is this nationalism or ethnocentric inertia, coupled with their successes, which forced nationals in the countries hosting the Jews to persecute them.

Given the negative presentation or portrayal of Blacks in the so-called Holy Book ,men of God must interpret the Biblical Old Testament in such a way that it portrays God 's impartial nature .Having the bible re-written, as proposed by the late professor Banana of Zimbabwe, would not be the best way out but ,instead , let us customize or Africanize its interpretation .The interpretation should be done in such a way that it is adapted to cater for our needs and context in as much the same way as Synoptic Gospels were presented in a fashion that takes due regard the different audiences ,timescontexts ,needs and other variables. We should be seeing the Black Jesus and Moses, alike, in the bible, also, for example.

Additionally, success is a part and parcel of Jews ‘culture and from a tender age this value is fostered into them. Poverty is to them a form of deviance. Jews are taught that the secret of success lies in owning the country‘s economy. This secret, they have mastered and hence tend to monopolize the economies of not only their own countries, but even foreign lands as well. That is why, through this financial muscle, they indirectly rule the world .Sadly, Africans do the opposite. They do not even own their own economies.

Another contributory factor for the Jews ' s success is that in the Diaspora most of them were subjected to harsh or inhuman treatment, not only in Egypt during Moses ‘s time ,but everywhere else in the Diaspora. And Hitler is on record of having butchered about six million Jews (the holocaust)! That condition did not limit their potential. Instead, in this kind of environment, they had to learn survival skills in order to defy extinction. In so doing, they became not only dare-devils, but initiative enough to defeat life‘s challenges. With these acquired skills, the Jews can survive in any environment, no matter how unfriendly it is.

These powers and or culture of endurance had already developed when the Israelites were made to wonder for forty years, instead of forty days, in the wilderness of Mesopotamia by 'God’, and in this harsh environment they met challenges of various forms. It is in this context that one can remark that challenges are a necessary evil because they provoke the best reactive response out of a challenged individual. These responses, in turn, generate inner strivings which are geared towards meeting the demands of the challenge .In the process one develops. Africans needed to have employed or adopted this approach from the atrocities suffered at the hands of Whites during the Slave Trade, Colonial and Neo-colonial periods. Such experiences should have schooled us about, first, the values of unity, necessitated by the fear of a common enemy, the oppressor, and; secondly, the need to combine our effort in developing our societies.

While Africans, just like the Shakespearean arrant defeatist or coward ,who tends to die many times before his actual death(in his imagination) ,do have the flight instinct of readily taking to heels without the slightest endeavor to stand their ground, the brave and resilient Jew would adopt the pugnacious spirit to seek to conquer. Resilience is the ability to recover from misfortune. One must not only endure a difficult circumstance but also look at a seeming obstacle and see an opportunity in it. Stay tuned till we meet and finish this series next week.